Greater Sydney Local Land Services

On-ground conditions highly variable across the region.

• April rainfall was near average across the region. Continued follow-up rainfall will be important to maintain conditions through autumn and into winter.
• Parts of the regions have transitioned to the NSW CDI Drought Affected category during April. This is driven by the decline in the Rainfall Indicator at some locations.
• The drought forecast suggests that most of the region will likely be in the Drought Affected CDI category by the end of July (with low to high model agreement and moderate to high past accuracy).

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Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

Plant greenness levels remain near average to above average for most of the region for the February to April period.

Note that some of the extremely negative NDVI areas (brown patches) are water bodies or changes due to urban development.

The NDVI anomaly is a useful measure of vegetation density and plant health. It estimates the amount of green vegetation there is in the landscape compared to what is expected at the given time of year, against the baseline period 1987 - 2020.

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Individual Drought Indicators

Drought indicators remain high across the three locations.

• There has been a rapid decline in the Rainfall Indicator (RI) at some locations. This is due to April 2024 rainfall data no longer influencing the long-term calculation for this indicator.
• Further rainfall will be beneficial in maintaining the positive production outlook across the region.

To access a Drought History chart for your Parish, visit the Seasonal Conditions Information Portal.